Now he had noticed in the morning that there were only two horses in the building, and those two were tied up in the stalls next to that which his pony occupied.

He walked along the range of stalls.

The two horses were there, then came a gap of empty stalls, and beyond the gap he counted six other horses.
Wogan became at once curious about those six other horses.

They might of course be farm-horses, but he wished to know.

It was quite dark within the building; he had only counted the horses by the noise of their movements in their stalls, the rattle of their head-ropes, and the pawing of their feet.